Monday, February 22, 2010

Lately I have been looking at my Art Journals and thinking that the covers were very dull, so I decided to bling them up a bit!

This first one is about 8" square, and is about half filled. A few pages have birds or other natural images on them so I wanted to follow on with that, without making the cover another journal page as such. I love adding 3D elements to artwork, but you can't do that too much inside the journal as the pages won't close if you do, so I contented myself with putting them on the cover. The tag was made a few weeks ago using one of TH's Distress Ink / Perfect Pearls techniques, also recently demo'd on C & C. Several bits move or dangle. You can see I am a fan of T. Holtz ideologies!

By contrast this one is very small, 4" approx, and I have kept the decoration very simple. I shall use this one for lettering. I love the beaded trim, (more movement) and the leaves were stencilled through a Stewart Gill stencil with Viva 3D Glitter Gel in Haematite.

I think this next one is my favourite! The journal is about DL size, and I have started using it. I stencilled a design on it with Brilliance Platinum then added some German Scrap. I Glimmer misted the tag, which was black, added a strip of GM'd text from a book in Polish (or it may be Czech I'm not sure as I don't know either language). Then I added a flower made from parts of several other flowers and various metal embellishments including part of an old earring and stuck it on. I stuck a few tiny bits together to make the 3 small pieces across the bottom. Again, a couple of the items move around as you handle the journal.

This last item is for "Stash Lists" as you can see from the front - this has lists of which colours I have in each kind of pad, Alcohol Inks, CB folders and dies I already have etc - with any luck, if I remember to take it with, I shall avoid duplications in future when I go craft shopping!! The book is about A6 size and was shocking pink so I toned it down with white acrylic paint, wrote out the title and added it along with some black lacy braid down the sides. Then I made a tag, using some more of the Polish text. I stuck on some black wired beads from a wedding shop, some T Holtz film strip, a couple of stamped images and some more moveable TH ideologies. And gems. Phew!

When I have finished using the books I shall add ribbons, beads, mini tags etc to the bindings, but it would make them too difficult to use if I did it at this stage!Hope you like them.

Very big welcome to my new followers - It is very gratifying when people want to see my stuff, thank you so much! Please leave me comments or questions if you have time, I love to know people have been calling in.

6 comments:

These are fabulous Chris. I adore all the Ideology bits and pieces. Is that where the lovely little keys come from? I love those. I'm afraid I can't choose a favourite as I think all these covers are gorgeous.

BTW I've added myself to your followers. I can't think how I missed doing it before as I've visited your blog several times. No matter, it's done now.

Hi Lesley - great to have you as a follower, glad you like what's on here. The little keys aren't ideology, but I don't know where I got them! - I know the fancy ones were off a cheap bracelet from a charity shop or 2nd hand shop - about £3 worth yielded a load of keys, butterflies, all sorts! The plainer steel ones were from a craft shop somewhere - probably Paddy's Stamping Place.

These are just beautiful Chris - your mojo has certainly come back with a vengeance.Just added myself to your list of followers as I honestly thought I was one already - have you linked on my blog so why I had not become a follower I will never know.

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About Me

I have always loved to craft - knitting, sewing, painting, pottery, home decor - I've done them all. Took up papercrafting perhaps 5 years ago, that led very quickly to stamping, then to mixed-media. I love it, as there's something to learn all the time from all the incredibly creative people around. At the moment jewellery making is my favourite craft!